


Blood on my Back

by WingedAsarath (Espeonsilverfire2)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Body Horror, Death, Gen, Horror, Modern Era, Suffering, Supernatural Elements, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-08 00:35:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5476445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Espeonsilverfire2/pseuds/WingedAsarath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern AU set in England. Levi has a good life, working part-time at the local bookstore while he studies at university. He has made several friends out of regulars who frequent the establishment: Eren, Mikasa, and Armin among them. Things are looking well, until they begin to vanish one by one. In the meantime, a shadowy figure approaches Levi with an offer...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is my first major fanfic in several years, so I hope you all enjoy it! It's going to be a violent, angst-fest, so I hope that's your thing! Any and all feedback is much appreciated- I know I'll be rusty after all this time! Thank you!

Prologue

 

He was alone.

He sat, surrounded by shadows and darkness, without even the slightest trace of light. Alone, and isolated.

He couldn't see the hand before him, nor the cold floor upon which he knelt. Hard shoulders aching with an indescribable tension slumped, as his stinging palms fell to the icy ground. The echo of the slap rang through the air, the only noise in an otherwise silent domain.

Blood spattered to the floor, but it was not his. It rolled off his shirt, more than he thought possible to come from somebody's body.

But then it wasn't just somebody's body.

It was _some bodies_.

Eren… fiery-eyed and quick to act. Mikasa… loyal to a fault and skilled beyond measure. Armin… ever the tactician and stronger than he himself believed.

Erwin… Hange… Jean… Marco… Annie… Everyone was dead.

And he felt as if he were drowning in their blood. It ran over his back and pooled around him, rising higher and higher until he was forced to stand or be drowned in the iron liquid.

“No...” he breathed, and the tide continued to flow in. Instead of his back, he could feel it run down his hair, and as he tilted his head up to see where it came from, it ran over his face, forcing his eyes closed. He was saturated… soaked in the blood of his comrades and unable to stop it. Trying to wipe the blood from his eyes with his already bloodied hands, he was eventually able to see through a crack. Just in time for the rising level to engulf his mouth and nose.

With a final “Mmph!” he was utterly submerged, floating endlessly in the abyss. His body curled up, as if this were the waters of the womb rather than the life of his friends, as his mouth was filled with the tang of metal, and his consciousness drifted off into the surrounding dark.

 


	2. Chapter 1 - In the Depths of the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone is torturing for information. Prior to this, Levi is working in a bookshop, while Eren, Mikasa, and Armin disturb him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this! I'm not sure how frequent updates will be, but I shall do my best! I try to write around 3000 words per chapter, but this one only ran to 2500. Ah well! If you'd like to send any more feedback or keep abreast with updates, I have a tumblr at WingedAsarath! Thank you again, and please feel free to leave any comments!
> 
> Oh and, well, gore warning for the start of this fic, if you didn't already read all the archive warnings!

Chapter 1 – In the Depths of the Night

 

The boy screamed as his guts splattered onto the floor. Each sickening _slop_ drove his already fractured mind a little further into madness. He could feel the masked man's fingers inside him, pawing around. Fingertips brushed against the underside of his skin, his liver, his stomach… His intestines were being literally wrenched from him, and all he could do was open his mouth wide and howl.

“Where is he? _Answer me, boy_...”

Another  _squelch_ followed. More intestine flopped out.

“I DON'T KNOW! I SWEAR! HE JUST WORKS NEAR ME!”

“Oh?” the figure seemed almost… amused. As if he didn't consider the torture he was carrying out any worse than tickling somebody with a feather. His fingers probed a little deeper, earning a shudder and another cry of pain from the boy whose abdomen he had literally torn apart.

“I think you know more than you're letting on, boy. Or-” His hand stopped, then grasped one of the young man's kidney's and squeezed _hard_. “-Perhaps you don't. Either way, you're going to tell me all you know about _Levi Ackerman_.”

Tears pricked at the corners of the boy's eyes. He couldn't take this. He couldn't. Pain flared through his entire body like thousands of tongues of fire, burning white hot at his core. His core which had been split apart and mauled by this man with all the care a child gives while playing with their food.

Those eyes, however, also burned with a fire of pure hatred and determination. He didn't know who this man was, or what he wanted with Levi, but after all the suffering he had inflicted upon him, he did know one thing…

“I'll… never tell you… anything,” he spat, blood mixing with his saliva and dribbling down from his bottom lip.

The man gazed into the depths of those searing teal eyes. The boy's eyebrows had knitted into an intense frown of fury and pain, and his own eyes flickered over the sight. White teeth gritted so tight he could have sworn the youth was going to ground them down into meal, shaking arms strapped out straight on either side, and lightly tanned skin now drenched with sweat… It was quite the lovely sight indeed.

At last, he retracted his hand from the boy's abdomen, blood and bits of organ splattering to the ground. A small sigh escaped his lips as he looked down at his blood-soaked hand.

“Of that I have no doubt, Eren Jeager.”

And in one sharp movement, he raised his hands and snapped the boy's neck.

 

–

 

_One week earlier…_

 

A loud _crash_ came from around the corner, and it was all Levi could do to shake his head. The customer on the other side of his till looked around in surprise, but there was no shock written on the shorter man's face. He knew all too well what had happened, especially as he'd heard the exclamation which had preceded the noise.

“ _Wait! Eren! Don't pull that!”_

Yes, he was fairly certain that it was a certain Eren Jeager who had, for the second time this week, gotten over-eager and knocked down the book display. He was also certain it wouldn't be the last.

“Please excuse the noise; I'll handle it momentarily,” he calmly informed the customer, before adding, “That'll be seven ninety-nine.”

One brief exchange of money and a thank you later, and Levi was stepping around from behind the counter to check on the disturbance. Rounding the nearest bookshelf, his cold eyes fell upon the sight of a familiar brown-haired boy, surrounded by two friends, posterior plonked firmly on the floor and hand rubbing a presumably sore head. As soon as he looked up and saw the staff member, the boy's eyes shot wide open in fear.

“L-Levi!” he exclaimed. At almost the same instant, the blond-haired friend to his side suddenly grabbed his shoulders, and with tiny tears of fear in his eyes cried out, “We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry!”

Levi's cool gaze cast across the trio, before he at last heaved a sigh. Stepping towards them, he suddenly gave Eren a swift kick up the butt, launching him to his feet with a yelp.

“Get up,” he grumbled wearily. “Put all this back as it was. Clean up, or I'll ban you from the shop.”

Briefly, he made eye contact with the dark-haired girl who had remained silent the entire time. There was a small nod exchanged between them, but before anything further could happen, she had been grabbed by the blond and yanked over to where a mountain of books now lay jumbled on the scratchy carpet. Eren was already fumbling with the hardbacks, trying to arrange them on the table as fast as he could. It was sloppy work however, and Levi wasn't impressed.

“Armin!” he snapped, getting the blond's attention. The summoned boy's back shot straight as he span around with chattering teeth.

“Y-y-yes?”

“Show Jeager how to stack those _tidily_.”

“Y-yes sir!”

With another small sigh, Levi span on his heel and returned to his counter. Another customer was already waiting for him, with a small stack of books on horses, and he refused to be disciplined by his manager for keeping somebody waiting. Resuming his post, he forced his best retail smile, and began scanning the barcodes on the items.

“That'll be thirty-two ninety-seven, sir. Do you have a loyalty ca-?”

_CRASH._

Levi froze mid-sentence at the sound of yet more books tumbling down. This time a female voice rang out from behind the bookshelf.

“Eren!”

The air seemed to freeze for a moment, and Levi stilled. Across the counter, the customer watched him with uncertainty, and scratched his ash-brown hair. However, after a few seconds, the cashier sucked in a deep breath and said, “If you'll excuse me a moment.”

The student could only watch as Levi stepped back around the till and out of sight behind the shelves, and could only flinch as a voice then bellowed, “JEAGER!”

 

An hour later found three figures sitting on a small sofa within the bookshop, heads hanging and expressions downcast. The display had at last been rectified, but one of the books in it had been damaged, and the three had been forced to band together and pay for the copy. In Armin's hands sat the battered and torn Onslaught Upon Colossi, the newest best-seller by D. Pixis, and the subject of the special exhibit.

“We fucked up...” Eren groaned, hands clasped over his temples and elbows resting on his knees.

“ _You_ fucked up, Eren,” the girl pointed out bluntly.

“Thanks, Mikasa.”

“At least I got the book I wanted...” Armin said in a tiny, defeated voice. The trio groaned in unison, but were interrupted by the sound of approaching doom, or rather, footsteps.

A pair of very cold, very harsh grey eyes surveyed them, as the figure stopped and folded his arms.

“Will this happen again?” Levi asked tersely. Three heads shook.

“No sir!” Armin whimpered, attracting the piercing gaze. Levi watched him for a moment, possibly deliberating something, before he responded.

“Good. It had better not.”

The three students let out a small sigh of relief that the ordeal was over. When they looked up now, their expressions were much brighter.

“So, Levi, when do you get off work?” Eren asked surprisingly cheerfully.

The cashier glanced at the wall clock. Four-thirty. The shop closed at five.

“Half an hour. But I have to tidy after, so make it forty-five minutes.”

Eren's face broke out in a grin. “Great! We'll see you across the road at the coffee shop then!” Without even giving him a chance to protest, the boy had leapt from his seat, followed quickly by Armin and Mikasa, and raced off out the store. Levi watched them go with a mildly irritated look on his face, before he turned back to the till.

“Only half an hour to go...” he murmured to himself as he opened the cash drawer to start counting.

 

Fourty-five minutes later found the dark-haired man looking both ways as he attempted to dodge the onslaught of buses and cars which plagued the road by the university. Eventually, he spotted a gap and darted across, eyes catching sight of the trio of waving teenagers sitting on a cold metal table outside the coffee shop.

“Levi!” Eren exclaimed happily as he approached them and pulled out one of the chairs.

“Every week you ask me to come here and every week you scrounge a drink off me,” Levi replied flatly. “I take it this week won't be any different?”

“We promise we won't! Don't we, Eren?” Armin piped up, elbowing his friend in the side.

“Ow! Yes, we promise!” Eren said, shoving the blond's appendage away. Mikasa merely nodded. Levi gave the three of them a warning look, as if saying _'you'd better fucking not'_ before standing again and heading into the coffee shop, one hand already reaching into his coat pocket for his wallet. The weather was chilly, not _too_ unsurprising considering it was mid-December, and so even he was wrapped up warm in a thick dark-blue puffer jacket. Nonetheless, he was grateful for the blast of hot air from the heater as he stepped indoors. Heading up to the counter, he joined the queue, taking the opportunity to check the board at the back to see the menu. Alas, all the pumpkin spice stuff was now gone, in favour of more Christmas-y beverages. In that case…

“I'll have an Earl Grey please. No milk.”

After a few minutes of waiting, and wondering exactly why one of the female staff in the back of the shop was clutching a bag of chips with such fervour, Levi received his tea and returned outside, sitting back down in his seat. Lifting the card cup with one hand, he sipped the hot beverage, savouring the warm sensation running down his throat and heating him from the inside out.

“Well, how is school going?” he finally asked the group, setting his drink back down.

“Eren is failing,” Mikasa said bluntly, causing the boy next to her to jerk in shock.

“M-Mikasa! Don't tell him that!”

“Is that so?” Levi quirked an eyebrow, but otherwise remained impassive.

“He's doing well at P.E!” Armin pipped up. “And Mikasa is predicated all A's! I'm avoiding trouble, and I'm doing ok.”

“P.E. is not a subject Eren is taking for GCSE though,” Mikasa pointed out. At this point, Eren's head slammed into the table. Levi's gaze was still unamused.

Quickly changing topic, Armin, who was beginning to look incredibly flustered, asked, “L-Levi, how's your course going?”

The man in question picked his tea back up and took another sip, leaning back in the cold silver seat. “My course is going well. I'm going to be very busy soon though, with the January exams approaching. Old English is giving us a seen exam, and the paper is released next week.”

Levi was currently studying Linguistics at his university, and sometimes wondered how on earth he had ended up entering a friendship (not that he would admit to them being his friends; when asked he would refer to the three as acquaintances) with a group of secondary school-attending teenagers.

“Does that mean we won't see you for a few weeks?” Armin asked. His face seemed rather… sad.

“My manager has given me a few weeks off of work starting from the twentieth. So this will be the last time you see me until after the exams, yes.”

The whole table went quiet at that. In the silence, Levi could hear the honking of bus horns and the chatter of students hurrying between lectures and buildings. The campus was built on a main road into the city centre, but it was still fairly far from the school the three teens attended. Apparently, they had started frequenting the bookshop he worked at as it had a better range than the one nearer to them. Although, these days he suspected half their reasoning was to see him. Honestly, he wasn't worth such a fuss, though he didn't really mind the company. Despite that, he still couldn't understand the appeal they saw in such an abrasive individual as himself.

Levi's train of thought, and the table's silence, was broken by a sudden “Ouch!” from Armin. It seemed his cup had slipped, and hot coffee had spilt onto his hand and the cuff of his white shirt. A few tears were budding in the corner of the boy's eyes as Eren rushed to inspect it, and Mikasa leaned over to help.

Suddenly, the table rattled as Levi stood up, and Armin's face tilted up with shock as he saw the man approach him. A white handkerchief was produced from Levi's pocket, and he bent over, wordlessly dabbing away the spilt drink before tending to the scald.

“It's not too bad. Your coffee had cooled quite a bit. Take more care next time.”

“Th-thank you,” Armin murmured, reaching his uninjured hand back out to his drink to take a calming sip. Silence fell again, until this time Eren was the one to break it.

“Did you, by any chance, hear about the break in at the museum?”

Levi's eyes shot up at that. The museum in question was located on his university campus, so he knew all-too-well that it had happened. He'd watched the police cordon off the building and investigate as he'd been walking between lectures.

“What did they steal?” Mikasa asked, looking over at Eren. The boy simply shrugged.

“I don't know. I was wondering if Levi had heard any rumours around the campus.”

The man's gaze flicked up from the rim of his tea. “I did hear it was some sort of ancient occult artifact, but nothing more concrete than that.”

In his mind, he switched back to the lecture where he'd overheard the gossip.

 

“ _Oh Hange, did you hear?” a quiet voice piped up. Levi, who was busy placing his notebook back into his bag, and reshuffling to make space for his pens, only paid them half a mind. Idle chatter was not something he tended to bother himself with. Especially when the majority of it was salacious rumours about student relationships, or raving about the latest soap opera plot twist._

“ _No, Petra, what is it?”_

“ _The museum on campus was broken into! I heard that they stole some sort of ancient occult artifact.”_

_Hange seemed quite interested at this. “Oh?! Do you know anything more? Did it have dark magic? Was it cursed?!”_

_Petra seemed a little overwhelmed by her friend's sudden enthusiasm. She held up her hands in front of her and took a step back. “I'm sorry. That's all I heard.”_

_The chatter continued, but the news had piqued Levi's interest. He mentally filed it away for something to look into later, however, and finished packing up ready to get to his next lecture._

 

In the present, Levi took another sip of his tea while the trio of teenagers discussed the possibilities. It was ridiculous to think this artifact could  _actually_ have any sort of supernatural powers. And utterly ludicrous to think it would in any way impact their lives. Or so Levi thought.


End file.
